


Invaluable

by mayachain



Series: 14Valentines2018 [14]
Category: Babylon 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Complicated Relationships, Fix-It, Gen, Independence, Politics, Telepathy, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-03-18 14:36:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13683693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayachain/pseuds/mayachain
Summary: The paperwork should never have crossed Lt. Corwin’s desk.





	1. Chapter 1

I.

The paperwork should never have crossed Lt. Corwin’s desk. By all rights, the Command staff should never have known a thing about Lyta’s eviction from the Ambassadorial level. 

Susan is forever grateful to the person who passes the matter along to Corwin, who in turn squints at his console, puts on his big boy pants and approaches her. Commander Ivanova is beyond busy with her news network and fighting a civil war, but once she reads the notice she knows that she cannot do less than deal with it in person.

There are many reasons why Susan and Lyta will never be best friends. Most of them tied up in Susan’s mother and _Talia_. Yet… much like Delenn, Susan will never forget the trip the three of them took to Z’ha’Dum to seach for John. What is more, she remembers how ambivalent Talia felt towards the Corps. Lyta started working for the Underground long before Talia came to doubt, and still Susan can see with frightening clarity how even Lyta could be driven back into their arms if given too few other choices. 

Susan owes this woman for John, her friend. Ivanova of the Resistance movement owes Lyta for what she has already done, for all that she will still do.

Talia would have helped her. 

Babylon 5 doesn’t have a lot of ways to make credits post-secession, which is why Lyta stands to lose her quarters in the first place. However: “We can damn well offer you bed and board,” Susan states when she sits her down. It’s what they’ve been forced to do for the Earth Force soldiers who are _still here_ \- despite not getting close to as much hazard-pay as John and Susan would like to pay them.

 

II.

Lyta has no idea how Ivanova ever found the time to track her down. The fact that she did means a lot, especially knowing how uneasy associating with telepaths in general and with _her_ in particular makes the Commander. 

The new quarters are smaller, but they are hers. Once she gets over the shock of being asked to move it’s even rather nice, making a new start in a space that is free from memories of Vorlons, especially the one who _would never be Kosh._

Renting out her old quarters earns the station money, more so since the rooms Lyta settles for are on par with Marcus’ size-wise. It’s enough for Command to set aside a little stipend just for their pet – but no, Lyta Alexander sits on the war council, she is no longer and never again will be anyone’s pet telepath.

She tries to get freelance work whenever the war situation allows it. There are _very_ few clients for a human telepath refusing to be part of PsiCorps. It’s not a good feeling at all, but Lyta is not desperate. A talk with Lennier has her corresponding with two Minbari she met during the Shadow War, which proves more than enough to keep her from idle thoughts.

“Unless they kill us all or the whole crew gets court martialed, you’ll have a place,” Ivanova said. 

Lyta plans to hold her to it.

 

.


	2. Chapter 2

III.

By the time she is standing in a frozen desert on Mars, she has eaten dinner with Zack multiple times, shared drinks with Lillian Hobbs, talked philosophy with Marcus, broken bread with Number One.

Nobody who has learned about the weaponized telepaths has ever slept well at the thought. Everyone here is prepared to do what it takes; the Shadows’ victims haven’t signed up for anything. It warms Lyta as much as it aggravates her to know viscerally just how much Stephen Franklin is opposed.

The Martian desert is cold.

She is doing this for the Resistance, for the people of Mars, for Babylon 5, for Earth. For the humans who she has come to call friends, for the telepaths in the Corps still brainwashed and misused. She is even doing it for them, a little, these people she is sending to die so that their deaths will not be in vein, since there is nothing else to be done for them... And she is doing it for herself even as it tears her apart, yet another sacrifice to bring about a world in which Lyta Alexander can begin a new life.

Somewhere far away from where Lyta is standing, Susan Ivanova is critically hurt. Lyta knows it, Susan knows it, they have always known it - there is no winning without also losing.

 

IV.

The credits the newly minted Alliance pays Lyta make for a small but solid income. 

PsiCorps protests. So does Earth. President Sheridan takes longer to sign than Lyta likes, but in the end he owes Lyta a greater show of loyalty than hems and haws. “We owe you rather a lot,” he concedes, even if he feels it necessary to state in her contract that all clients must at minimum be neutral to the Alliance’s interests.

Telepath officials from every which species tend to be reticent, in part but not exclusively for the sake of their people’s secrets. Reports that Lyta has exchanged knowledge with Sikhat and Kolen of Minbar nonetheless spark the beginnings of a tentative network that counts all member species except, of course, the Narn.

Cross-species telepathic compatibility isn’t always a given. The experience is hard to describe and so very interesting. Each new connection allows Lyta to experiment with her still-emerging powers in ways that Lyta under Ulkesh’s thumb could never have imagined. Gradually, she doesn’t hold back anymore.

She grudgingly meets with Psi Corps telepaths when it cannot be avoided. They _are_ representatives of Earth, after all.

_It feels good to meet them without gloves on my hands,_ she writes to Susan.

_See you at the inauguration,_ Susan writes back.

 

.


	3. Chapter 3

V.

Nobody can agree what to do about the rogue refugee telepaths. President Sheridan doesn’t need the complications for dealing with Earth.

Susan thinks keeping telepaths who are free of the Psi Corps _free_ should always be a priority. Lyta’s rank already sets a precedent, and Babylon 5 has long been a way-station for the underground railroad. After using the Shadow-touched as cannon fodder they could all use the Karma points.

“How would you decide?” sighs Lochley. It’s clear that the new Captain doesn’t _want_ to ask for her input. Not when she has yet to reach a proper compromise with John on how Earth Force and the Alliance are to divvy up the station. Not when the people Lochley is now supposed to command know and trust _Ivanova_ , are used to obey her without question.

John lives because of the boy Simon’s sacrifice. If he can’t take the heat, his stay in his new office won’t last.

“If you let them stay, take the leadership away from that man,” Susan suggests. In private, she thanks the heavens that the _Titans_ and her crew are as new to each other as she is.

 

VI.

The community Lyta slowly finds herself a part of leaves her in awe. The refugees, in turn, are intrigued by the inter-species telepath network and its baby steps. Lyta’s acquaintances are relieved that the human contingent no longer consists of only one woman. Ghad the younger Drazi hints that the commune may come to include an alien or seven before long. 

Three men and women have been chosen as Speakers of the camp. When Lyta expresses surprise at how readily he stepped down, Byron insists that “I’m no better than any of the others.” He wants to believe in his own humility, wants to atone for past sins, wants to believe it was never he who put his name forward.

Lochley wants to get rid of the unwanted colony before long. A triumvirate showing subtle Minbari influence can only help their quest for independence. 

Lyta stands before the Ambassadors and argues herself hoarse. (The stuff of her nightmares: The easiest choice for the Alliance would be to give them access to Z’ha’dum.) It takes months and a side deal with the Narn to reach a compromise. 

For the prize of a suitable planet, a moon or even an asteroid, those among the Free who can stomach it will answer when and if the Alliance calls. 

 

.


	4. Chapter 4

VII.

Michael Garibaldi does not have a drinking problem. He is coping with everything that happened just fine, he is _over_ what he did after Bester fucked with his head, he is happy with Lise, he can live with their light years of distance. 

He never wants anyone inside his mind ever again. Letting in Lyta so that she could save his sorry hide was nearly more than he could stand. Asking her to check for any nasty Bester remnants…

After, she looks at him as if she doesn’t want to upset him more, which damn near sets him off – if there’s something she’s got to say, he’d rather she just _say_ it. “I don’t have the training to relieve your addiction,” is what eventually pours out. “If I had, I’d have offered to do something for Stephen, but I would do more harm than good.”

Michael doesn’t have an addiction, he doesn’t, he kicked the habit years back and so what if he drinks a little now in the evenings, that hardly means –

“Alana does, though,” Lyta says. “She has the training. Well, the training to hook people on whatever substance is convenient, but the technique works in reverse. She could help you. And I could reinforce what she does so that no-one could go back inside your head and take it back.”

Alana, 46, formerly of Proxima 3, has reasons to hate Bester that rival Michael’s, he knows from her files. From Lyta’s smile, it’s why she suggested her and not someone else.

Michael doesn’t have an alcohol problem. He doesn’t trust anyone besides _maybe_ Lyta inside his mind.

But perhaps he owes it to his improbable chance with Lise, as well as Jeff’s memory, to do his damnedest to make sure his purely occasional nightcap doesn’t develop into one.

 

VIII.

For a while it seems as if Earth threatens to withdraw from the Alliance over the telepath issue every few weeks. A camp on a space station is one thing, but a planet full of human teeps outside Psi Corps control? 

The longer the negotiations go on, the less vocal the protests become.

“Nobody is saying that telepaths aren’t still allowed to go to Psi Corps and make a life with others of their kind there,” Senator Hoshi harrumphs. The next time elections come around Susan is definitely voting for him. If Psi Corp cannot gain the new members in the high numbers they are accustomed to without coercion, that’s really Psi Corps’ fault, isn’t it? 

“We want no more from Earth than our freedom, contact with non-psi family aside,” the leader of the Babylon 5 contingent repeats, repeats, repeats. Is such a thing really worth another civil war? Is it?

Those among Susan’s own crew who were undecided on the matter change their tune once they barely survive an encounter with a Drakh ship. Susan makes a call, caring very little what her superiors might think of her initiative. She is grateful that the elderly man Lyta sends bears no resemblance to either Talia or Marcus.

Susan wants all life that has a connection to the Shadows gone from the universe. She wants the kid Delenn is expecing to know peace.

There’s a moon at the outer edge of Narn space that might be suitable. Not ideal to either Narn or Centauri, which is precisely why it hasn’t been colonized yet. 

Captain Ivanova follows the news on ISN almost every night, listens to comments sent her way by John, by Lyta, by Elizabeth. She cannot imagine not being informed. She has just about forgiven herself for not being in the thick of it.

 

.


	5. Chapter 5

IX.

Alfred Bester plays his own game, as he is wont to do. He toes the party line and then some, yes, but Lyta has more than once caught another – incriminating - thought. Were she to be cured, the home planet is a place he could go with Caroline. The resident telepaths hate, hate, hate him, he knows, Lyta knows, everyone knows – but everyone loves a good redemption story, yes? As of now, he is making token efforts to enforce Psi Corps justice but he is also waiting to see what comes out of this colony the telepaths want to establish. 

Garibaldi hates his guts. Sheridan hates his guts. Zack hates his guts. He has not endeared himself to Elizabeth or Number One.

He is the devil they know. “I’m making it my job to know where he is,” Lyta promises Michael, Byron, Alana, the kids who only met him once during training. He will not go near them no matter how often he sets foot on Babylon 5. Those who can’t avoid him are not particularly worried about what he might do to them if they cross paths.

 _You don’t want to make yourself into Lyta Alexander’s enemy._ It’s impossible now to gauge how far this whisper has traveled. By the time the telepath moon becomes reality, she can track his psychic signature across several solar systems.

 

X.

The moon is christened Iris Four.

Edgars Industries is fully engaged in rebuilding Mars. As recompense for past wrongdoing, Lise Hampton-Edgards-Garibaldi finds the money to fund the initial settlement.

A White Star guards the Hyperspace Gate. The Alliance sets it up at a distance – near enough to let the settlers engage in trade, not so close that they cannot begin to develop their own manner of living without a cacophony of outside influence.

A small village spreads into villages spreads into small towns.

The Babylon 5 refugees are the first; others arrive as soon as they can. Most are Corps escapees who traveled the Underground Railroad. A significant number have formed ties to the non-psi humans and aliens who helped them on their journey. Susan is relieved to hear it: They’ll form a bulwark against John’s greatest fear, keep Iris Four from a dangerous fall into isolationist hands.

Lyta’s friend Alana retires from the triumvirate in favor of the man known as Gianin Lurker and becomes the moon’s representative on Minbar.

It takes a year before Susan herself sets foot on Iris Four. She has barely a month of leave, people to visit on four different planets, but dreams and her mother’s grave have driven her to come see. 

She stands in a square in what is shaping up as the capital and looks upon the memorial wall full of names of telepaths who never made it to the promised land, unable to decide whether she wants to add _Talia Winters_ and _Sofie Ivanova_ to it.

 

.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: offscreen suicide(s)

XI.

Every now and then, ISN reports a run-in between Irisians and Psi Corps agents. The vignettes are always frigidly neutral. The ‘expert’ comments make Susan want to destroy her screen.

There is little chance EarthGov don’t know that these clashes are often the result of Lyta leading a task force, but PsiCorps and EarthGov are no longer bosom friends, and the President no longer cares to protect PsiCorps supremacy when the free telepaths have the tacit backing of President Sheridan.

The holes in the narrative irk Susan. She spends evenings formulating her own clips in her head, though her erstwhile news channel is long since gone. It’s an open secret that her ship is a safe whistle stop. Captain Ivanova hears things.

Farid tells her about meeting former friends and allies on the opposite sides of what has become something akin to a civil war. About his hope that one day he, too, will hit the right chord that will cause loyalists to defect.

Tamsin can hardly speak when she confesses that her partner for an operation defected ‘home’ to the Corps.

Inga can barely keep her anger from bleeding into Susan’s whole crew as she recalls recognizing a childhood friend and finding the agent’s mind recalibrated and the memory of their friendship gone.

Susan writes up the stories she collects, fiercely glad every time the Irisians win. Someone on Iris Four is surely keeping a similar record, but she sends her files on to Lyta all the same.

Kalvin Cho sits with her when they learn that Tamsin’s group blew themselves up rather than let a squad of Psi Cops capture them. “Did they not believe Lyta would come for them?” the _Titans_ ’ own free telepath asks. Susan can only pour them both another drink.

The dread they both feel watching the news from then on only fades when Pedro tells them that Inga’s friend was captured and successfully deprogrammed.

 

XII.

Conflict brews every time a newcomer asks to bring a non-psi partner to Iris Four. Much as Lyta dislikes to admit it – Byron and some of the others only like to believe they are better than the Corps that taught them everything they know. Susan is not only welcome here because her P status is 'latent'.

“In the long run, we’ll need psi-zeroes to keep up a healthy gene pool,” is the argument that has won out so far over past hurt and fear clashing against marriages, re-forged ties with mundane siblings, and the specter of already-born and future non-psi children.

 _Parent,_ as a term, means little to nothing to most who grew up in the Corps. Men rarely ever saw the children they fathered, women were rarely close to sons and daughters once weaned.

“I never had the inclination to form a relationship with Ezrín,” Belín confides in Lyta. Young Ezrín, Lyta understands, had known Belín had given birth to her but was not primed to have any kind of feelings about the woman. Here, on Iris Four, it is up to them to decide what – if anything – they want their genetic connection to mean.

“By choice we are all brothers and sisters,” the former refugees from Babylon 5 preach. Iris Four unites them, connects them. Few of the settlers want to copy what they recall of the social configurations of Earth. This does not mean new ties cannot be formed.

If Lyta wanted, she could claim any of the elders as a ‘parent’ – or ask any of the young ones to be her children. She is off-moon more often than not, but her roots are here, her job as an agent for the Alliance makes no difference.

A nuclear bomb in human form in conjunction with pregnancy might not be safe for anyone. If she decides to risk it, she can approach which-ever partner she wants.

.


	7. Chapter 7

XIII.

Originally, the group of scientists striving to induce telepathy in a psi-null species solely consists of Narn and the odd trained telepathic human. Makh of the Drazi joins a year into the experiments. Kolen of Minbar facilitates the inclusion of an expert in matters of genetics as well as the soul. To the Narns’ great discomfort, the first real break-through occurs mere weeks after allowing the participation of a lone Centauri woman.

G’Kar agreed to Alana’s stipulation that all research would be restricted to Iris Four. He did so while doing her a courtesy, accepting her word without glancing at Lyta. He backs the Triumvirate and countenances the mental incarceration Byron inflicts on the overzealous Narn who tries to make off with something he shouldn’t have. “I’ve never seen you so… disappointed,” she asks the former Ambassador and feels it down to her bones when he looks at her and answers: “I am.”

Fifty Irisians regularly travel to Narn space to offer their services. The Alliance pays only a pittance while G’Kar’s Narn scrape together what they can, but apart from the whole arrangement being a reason they have their own moon in the first place, a large portion of the community feels they owe it to the memory of their brethren annihilated by the Shadows.

“The Vorlons made us,” Byron intones and for once Gianin endorses his words. “They are gone, as are the Shadows. We have our own place here. We make our own path.”

 _I will never regret having lost part of my soul to Kosh,_ Lyta writes to Sheridan, the only being alive whose self is as touched by sheer light as her own. Kosh shaped what she became and left a part of himself behind in return. Discovering who she is, exploring what is possible, uniting telepaths from a myriad of species – all of it makes a legacy her mentor would have approved of.

 

XIV.

There is a force out there who planned to compromise young David. There is a force out there who found a way around the Anla’Shok security and hooked its tendrils into an infant.

There is an enemy who threatens the safety of the closest thing to family Susan has left. If her superiors think ordering her to the other end of the galaxy is going to keep her from joining Michael in the hunt, then eighteen years and a mutiny have clearly not shown them anything about her.

The _Titans_ has fought Drakh multiple times by now. Kalvin Cho doesn’t need Lyta’s word that their elusive leaders are behind the attack.

They track the bastard responsible to Centauri Prime, of all places. “You haven’t changed at all,” she tells an obstructively solicitous Emperor Mollari, but as she leaves his palace she cannot help but wonder if this is really true.

In the end, Susan cannot shake the feeling that the monster Michael shoots is but a pawn offer. Little David Sheridan is free. Kalvin can detect no other Drakh on all Centauri Prime. The only thing they can do is take their victory and fight once the next battle is upon them, same as they’ve always done.

 _If I lose my promotion, if I lose my ship, it was worth it,_ she writes to Lyta, tells John. Earth Force gave her a purpose when she had none, captaining the _Titans_ kept her sane, but if the telepaths have taught her anything it’s that an organization is not a home. 

If she loses her rank, if she loses her ship, Delenn’s five-year-old son will have been worth it. 

Marcus always thought she’d make a good Ranger recruit.

 

.


End file.
